April 24, 2008

my weirdest job ever

here's one of my "did i ever tell ya about the time...." stories. so hurry up kids, let's huddle around the camp fire and listen to glittergirl tell you one of her bizarro-world tales!

here are the basics: i was hired to be the "official staff photographer" for a new local tv channel. channel 62 was being broadcast for free, almost like the old UHF channels. (in cleveland this was WUAB channel 43, with local programming like "superhost".) i was recommended by my boss's husband who was hired as the station manager. he just knew me as someone his wife liked, who was "cool" and took good photos.

click here to see an old clip from superhost that will blow your mind if you grew up watching tv in cleveland in the 70's. but i digress.....

i only remember vague details. the channel was owned by brothers.... rich brothers who might have been greek and had some money to throw around. the channel would be free for those who could get the signal. they showed old movies & tv shows that were public domain (thus free). i remember the station manager handing me a wrinkled list and asking me to pick any movies from the list that i thought might be good. i seem to recall picking a few episodes of "the 3 stooges".

besides showing old movies, they were trying to build some local talent. they hired a man & woman to read new reports. they were both young and just out of broadcasting school, in stiff blazers with nervous expressions. i think by the 2nd day they knew they were in for an interesting time. especially after the host for the show about professional wrestling started wandering around the studio in workout clothes, flowing permed hair & fake tan; emanating what i can only call a roid-rage-ish vibe.

a children's show host was the next to join the station. she came to the studio in full fairy princess costume and never stopped being the bubbly kid's show host. i remember photographing her on set, which included fake castles built from cardboard boxes, glitter & glue. (and yes, she got on my nerves but i loved her outfit!)

i was in the studio all week as the new "talent" arrived. i took photos that eventually were blown up for lobby artwork as well as ads in local papers. i got to meet everyone, pick some movies to be aired, assist the floor director on the news broadcast, and hold cue cards. best of all, i got to have lunch with morganna the kissing bandit!

local tv host "fritz the night owl" had been around for ages. he showed scary movies, sci-fi films, and played a lot of trippy graphics that filled my saturday nights in the dorms at OSU. here's a video clip of one of his shows. there were others on youtube, but those seem to have been pulled. bummer....

he was hired to do an entertainment show that would include movie reviews. he brought along with him morganna. i have no idea how they met or why they teamed up for this show, but he mentioned her in an interview here. i spent an entire day with them as they attempted to film their first show. i took tons of photos (none of which i have in my possession, sadly.) it was a blast! fritz was very funny and mellow, while morganna was bubbly and kind.

on a lunch break she invited me to join her on a trip to the mall so she could shop and eat at wendy's. before we left for the mall, she put on a coat and zipped it up to her neck. it was the middle of summer, but she said if she didn't cover up her "bald-headed twins", she would attract a crowd and never get any shopping done.

she was right about that. when we sat down to eat, she unzipped the coat, & every guy in a 100 yard radius was suddenly crowding around!

the entire week i spent working for the tv station was....beyond surreal. i wish i had those photos......

update: i talked to my mom about this, and she remembered seeing the final publicity shots, but doesn't know where they ended up either. i must have thrown them out by mistake. she mentioned having a shoe box full of my old negatives. i stopped over to drop off her yellow purse, and she gave me the box. on the very top of the pile of negative was an envelope of negatives with "channel 62" written on it. it contained all 3 rolls of film i shot that week and includes the shots of fritz and morganna!!!!!!!! i am so friggin' excited!!!! i dropped them off at the photo counter and should have something back by monday.

uc freak- you're right about mine & sds's pics looking similar. which is odd. we've known each other since we met in the OSU dorms in fall of 88, and while we always dug each other's style, we never really crossed paths.

we've never had the same hairstyle in 20 years! but i noticed recently that we now have similar short chopppy haircuts with little winged out "sideburns".

if i had time, i'd do a spreadsheet comparing our various styles over the last 20 years. there was the iggy pop haircut, the endless bob phase, the too short bangs times...

And I was there for all of it! I remember you would call me nightly and tell about all your adventures down at the TV station, with Fritz and Morgana. The funny thing is, in Portsmouth we grew up with Channel 23 which is the same as your Channel 43. We got a weird mix of Columbus stuff like Fritz the Night Owl, but I grew up with Superhost and that all-day TV show where they played old movies and then they would take phone calls and spin a wheel with movie star pictures on it. What was that??